John Lennon Would Have Voted for Ronald Reagan

The CBS special celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Beatles appearance on The Ed Sullivan show never mentioned it. No surprise, since this sort of thing makes heads explode on the left. The news came out in this Toronto Sun article in June 2011.

John Lennon was a closet Republican, who felt a little embarrassed by his former radicalism, at the time of his death – according to the tragic Beatles star’s last personal assistant.

Fred Seaman worked alongside the music legend from 1979 to Lennon’s death at the end of 1980 and he reveals the star was a Ronald Reagan fan who enjoyed arguing with left-wing radicals who reminded him of his former self.

In new documentary Beatles Stories, Seaman tells filmmaker Seth Swirsky Lennon wasn’t the peace-loving militant fans thought he was while he was his assistant.

John, basically, made it very clear that if he were an American he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on (Democrat) Jimmy Carter.

I also saw John embark in some really brutal arguments with my uncle, who’s an old-time communist… He enjoyed really provoking my uncle… Maybe he was being provocative… but it was pretty obvious to me he had moved away from his earlier radicalism.

He was a very different person back in 1979 and 80 than he’d been when he wrote Imagine. By 1979 he looked back on that guy and was embarrassed by that guy’s naivete.”

In 1974 John Lennon met Ronald Reagan when they were both guests in the Monday Night Football booth. In the interview with Howard Cosell Lennon does not sound like an anti-war movement raving lunatic. I never liked Imagine or any of his anti-war songs, and it’s good to know that he later became embarrassed of his naivete. I was 12. my grandson’s age, when I watched The Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan show. While the girls seem to swoon over Paul and Ringo, the guys liked John. He was to rock and roll what Joe Namath was to football. They both loved to wear a fur coat and party with the ladies. Love him or hate him, but he can’t be ignored in the history of rock.